Press
Selected Press and Published Works
We also have a cookbook! Click HERE for reviews of The Nimble Cook and interviews with Ronna
How a Simple Soup Can Be a Gateway to 3 Additional Meals
So how can we benefit from a recipe’s specific instruction and, at the same time, use it as a cooking resource rather than just a path to a specific dish? How can we turn that recipe into a jumping-off point to make us more efficient, waste-conscious and help develop our off-the-cuff cooking mind-set?
by Ronna Welsh
“When you mention using them for stock, that’s when people start to roll their eyes,” said Ronna Welsh, a cooking teacher in Park Slope, Brooklyn, who chronicles her adventures with chard stems and watermelon rinds on her Web site Purple Kale Kitchenworks, in a column called “Otherwise, Trash.”
Her students are the kind of home cooks who make the extra effort to go the farmers’ market and support local agriculture, she said, but whose schedules and lack of skills cause them to feel stressed by a refrigerator full of raw ingredients.
Ms. Welsh likes to generate recipes for trimmings, she said, because using up everything satisfies some of the same urges that fuel the desire to be a better cook.”
by Julia Moskin
Guides, tips, and techniques
Ronna Welsh is a contributing ‘expert’ to Martha Stewart Living
“Purple Kale Kitchenworks transforms that uncertain moment of opening up the fridge or cupboard into one of creative possibility.
Among the many questions facing humans in their lifetime, one remains both universal and eternal: “What should we eat?” For home cooks who are feeling stumped or uninspired, who have tried meal planning or bulk meals on weekends but still can’t find a fit, Purple Kale Kitchenworks might offer just what you’re looking for.
Via private and group classes, this Sunset Park–based food educator transforms that uncertain moment of opening up the fridge or cupboard into one of creative possibility, even if it’s been a long day. Shying away from recipes, Purple Kale’s systems-based approach is guided by principles and informed by ingredients on hand.”
by Carrington Morris
“Any lover of Google docs, index cards, and color-coded file cabinets will be over the moon for this brilliant tip from Ronna Welsh, a cooking instructor at Brooklyn, New York’s Purple Kale Kitchenworks.
Welsh blew our collective minds this week with her dry-mix pastry prep kit—the DIY version of the pricey, often ugly “cookie kits" we’ve spied in a few knickknack-festooned, potpourri-packed shops.
“A kit-making session is a warm-weather activity that prepares you for cooler, nesting months,” Welsh writes. So spend one end-of-summer Saturday busting open every big bag of flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt you’ve got. Measure and sift together those dry ingredients based on your favorite recipes—one for apple pie, a second for biscuits, and yet a third for cookies—and package each one in a zip-top plastic bag. Label those suckers with their corresponding recipes (here’s the moment to use those aforementioned index cards!) and store them in the freezer, “where they take up less shelf space than balls of raw dough.” Truth!”
by Alex Van Buren
“When it comes to dinner, the most difficult meal to assemble on a daily basis, we all have our quick fixes: leftovers, take out, frozen vegetables, pasta.
After her children were born, Ronna Welsh’s default was cereal (for herself, not her kids). But she’s since devised a system that has changed her last-minute routine, which in turn led to the founding of her new food business, Purple Kale Kitchenworks.
The Park Slope chef has worked at and consulted for restaurants like Savoy and Rose Water, and now offers workshops in her home kitchen (or yours) that teach the average cook what is common practice to a chef–the mise en place.
The phrase means having everything in place: all the ingredients you need for a meal, prepped and ready to assemble. In your mind you may be visualizing spices measured out in little glass bowls like on cooking shows, or carrots diced and Ziplocked. But the gospel Welsh preaches is much more sophisticated.”
by Nicole Davis
“Ronna Welsh is the owner and chef at Purple Kale Kitchenworks, a Brooklyn-based studio and business that organizes cooking classes, pop-ups, and other culinary initiatives—all based around a “revolutionary, ingredient-driven, zero-waste strategy for cooking creative, delicious, and improvisational meals at home.” Food Tank sat down with Ronna to discuss food waste, sustainability, and home cooking.
Food Tank: How did you get involved in the food industry?
Ronna Welsh: Twenty years ago, I was in my last semester of a graduate degree in Rhetorical Theory and Criticism when I got my first cooking job–rent money while I finished my thesis. As I began to burn out on theories of argument and negotiation, I learned simultaneously how easy it was to build fast, lasting community in our tiny, tight kitchen and in the community through feeding others. I was hooked to this new life skill and ability to build community, so steeped in tradition and powerful enough to affect immediate change.”
by Food Tank Editors
“As the season of farm-fresh vegetables arrives, gardeners, farm-share subscribers and green-market shoppers often find it hard to keep up with the bounty. Too often, an overload of vegetables winds up rotting.
The vegetable onslaught "can feel like a terrific, privileged burden," says Ronna Welsh, who runs Purple Kale Kitchenworks, which offers cooking classes in Brooklyn, N.Y. But home cooks can use the same strategies that help professional chefs manage kitchen inventory, says Ms. Welsh.”
by Sarah Rose